Menta City Boutique Hotel
Menta City Boutique Hotel is a 39-room hotel on the high, quiet edge of Rethymno, about a 10 to 15 minute walk above the old town. Menta scores 9.3 on Booking.com across 1,509 reviews and 4.9 on Tripadvisor across 240, which is a rare combination: a near-perfect rating on one platform and a large sample on the other. Its rooftop breakfast and its hillside position are the reasons, and the walk home is the price.
We have no commercial relationship with this hotel. Crete Locals earns a commission if you book through the availability links on this page, which costs you nothing and does not change what we write; both ratings were read on the date in the table.
Hotel information
| Hotel | Menta City Boutique Hotel |
|---|---|
| Address | Psixoudaki S26, Mastampas |
| Type | Air conditioning · Airport shuttle |
| Style | Recently built boutique hotel on the high, quiet edge of Rethymno |
| Signature | Rooftop breakfast with an open sea view, cooked from homemade recipes |
| Keys | 39 rooms, spacious and recently built, with a pool and a view |
| Parking | Easy street parking up here, plus a reserved lot a short distance away |
| On foot | Rethymno old town 10 to 15 minutes downhill, and the same walk back uphill |
| Breakfast note | Homemade cakes and local hot dishes rather than croissants and chocolate spread |
| Front desk | Staffed 24 hours, useful for late arrivals |
| Airports | Chania (CHQ) about 60 km west, Heraklion (HER) about 80 km east |
| Booking.com rating | 9.3/10 (1,509 reviews) |
| Tripadvisor rating | 4.9/5 (240 reviews) |
| CreteLocals score | 8.8/10 · read the verdict |
Booking.com and Tripadvisor scores checked on September 25, 2026.
Location
Menta City Boutique Hotel is located at Psixoudaki S26, Mastampas, in Rethymno Town. The map below shows the exact spot; Google Maps and Waze give turn-by-turn directions.
Who Menta suits, and who should skip it
Menta suits travellers with a hire car who want to see Rethymno without fighting for a parking space, and who will happily walk 15 minutes into the old town. It suits guests who value a quiet hillside, a pool with a view and a homemade breakfast over a beachfront address. Anyone who struggles with a steady uphill walk, or who wants the beach at the door, should book in the town or along the coast.
Advantages
- 4.9 on Tripadvisor across 240 reviews, alongside 9.3 on Booking.com across 1,509
- Rooftop breakfast with sea views, cooked from homemade recipes and local produce
- Parking solved: street parking is easy up here, plus a reserved lot nearby
- Quiet, high position that works as a base for both the old town and day trips
- Pool with a view, and rooms guests describe as spacious and well kept
- Staff named in reviews for practical local advice, George and Michalis among them
Disadvantages
- The walk into town is downhill going and uphill coming back, 10 to 15 minutes each way
- Breakfast is homemade and simple, with cakes rather than pastries, which not everyone wants
- No beach at the hotel, so swimming means going down to the coast
- Parking is mostly on the street rather than in a dedicated garage
- At 39 rooms it is small, and the ratings keep it busy
- Smoking is permitted in designated areas, which not all guests expect
The rooms: 39 keys in a new build
Menta is a recent build rather than a conversion, and the rooms show it: guests describe them as spacious and clean, with a fridge and a sink, and decor that has been kept up rather than left to wear. Views run out over the town and the sea from the higher rooms, which is the payoff for the position.
The hotel runs a 24-hour front desk, which is worth noting for late arrivals after a delayed flight into either airport. It also describes itself as environmentally minded, and the breakfast sourcing backs that up more convincingly than most such claims.
The rooftop breakfast, and the hill
Breakfast is served on the top floor with an open sea view, and it is the thing guests write about most. The cook prepares homemade cakes and local hot dishes and explains what she has made each morning. One reviewer noted there were no croissants and no chocolate spread, then added that they did not miss them; another found there were too many cakes for their taste. Both descriptions are of the same table, and between them they tell you exactly what to expect.
The hill is the other defining fact. Menta sits in the highest, quietest part of Rethymno, which delivers the view, the calm and the easy parking. It also means the old town is a 10 to 15 minute walk down and the same walk back up at the end of the evening. Guests consistently describe it as manageable rather than trivial, and for anyone with mobility limits that distinction matters.
How to get there
Fly into Chania airport (CHQ), about 60 km west, or Heraklion airport (HER), about 80 km east. Rethymno sits between the two on the north coast national road, and Menta is above the town on the southern side.
Hire a car if you are staying here, because the hotel’s position rewards it and parking is the problem it solves; the deposit and insurance terms worth checking are in our car hire guide for Crete. Pre-book a transfer instead if you plan to stay put and walk, and compare the operators in our guide to taxi and transfer services in Crete. Taxis into the old town are short and cheap on the nights you would rather not climb back.
The Crete Locals review
Menta earns 8.8 from us. The rating pair is what makes it interesting: 4.9 on Tripadvisor is common enough among small hotels with a few hundred reviews, but 9.3 on Booking.com across 1,509 reviews is a large, hard-to-fake sample, and hotels rarely hold both. What guests describe is a hotel that has decided what it is, a quiet, well-run, recently built place above the town, and has not tried to be anything else.
The position is the whole strategy, and it works in one specific case above all: if you are hiring a car. Rethymno’s centre is a difficult place to park, and staying above it turns that daily problem into a non-event while leaving the old town within walking distance. Add a pool with a view and a rooftop breakfast, and it becomes a strong base for a week of driving out to Preveli, Arkadi and the Amari villages.
Be honest with yourself about the walk. Ten to fifteen minutes downhill to dinner is pleasant; the same distance uphill at midnight after a long meal is a different proposition, and it repeats every night of the stay. Guests handle it by taking a taxi one way, which costs little. If that sounds like a nuisance rather than a detail, a hotel in the town itself will suit you better.
Book Menta for a Rethymno week with a hire car, a rooftop breakfast and a view over the town, and expect homemade cakes rather than a pastry counter. Book in the old town if you want to walk home downhill, and on the coast if the point of the trip is the beach.
